WASHINGTON—Their messages run the gamut, but an explosion of outside advertising targeting the presidential candidates has the same goal: to provoke voters on issues from abortion and judges to killing wolves and John McCain’s age.

One group plans to spend up to $1 million on ads attacking Democrat Barack Obama’s economic policies and blaming the financial crisis on Democrats’ lack of oversight. A nonprofit that advocates the appointment of conservative judges is spending about $500,000 on ads in Michigan, Ohio and on Fox News Channel questioning Obama’s past associations, including with his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Planned Parenthood began airing an ad in three battleground media markets claiming Republican McCain and running mate Sarah Palin are insensitive to rape victims. The country’s largest nurses’ union has a hard-hitting spot that takes issue with McCain’s age—he’s 72—that is appearing for three days in markets in six states, including Minnesota. And Defenders of Wildlife expanded into new markets with an ad denouncing, in graphic form, the aerial hunting of wolves in Alaska, a practice Palin has supported as the state’s governor.

These groups are the guerrilla troops of the campaign season. Their ads tend to be quick hits that run in smaller media markets and aim to make a splash with the media, donors and voters.

Their efforts so far have been relatively small, a fraction of what the presidential candidates are spending.

Evan Tracey, who tracks political advertising, said Democratic-leaning groups have spent more than $6 million on ads since June and that Republican groups have spent a bit less.

By contrast, Obama is spending about $13 million this week alone, and McCain and the Republican National Committee together are spending about $11 million.

Still, the most effective timing for independent ads is closer to the election. Swift Boat Veterans and POWs for Truth, who created a sensation with ads critical of Democrat John Kerry during the 2004 presidential campaign, ramped up their advertising that October.

“There’s nothing new out there yet, nothing that has gone out there and framed this election in a different way,” said Tracey, who is head of TNS Media Intelligence/Campaign Media Analysis Group.

While the recent spate of commercials may not have enormous amounts of money behind them, several do make provocative points.

Some of the ads appearing in battleground states:

— RightChange.com, based in North Carolina, plans to air up to $1 million in ads on national cable television criticizing Obama’s tax policies and praising McCain’s efforts to increase regulation over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two giant mortgage financing companies at the center of the financial crisis. RightChange.com is a 527 organization that has received much of its financing from Fred Eshelman, a North Carolina pharmaceutical executive.

— The Judicial Confirmation Network, a 501(c)4 organization, will begin airing and ad on Fox News Channel and in small markets in Ohio and Michigan and timed for the new Supreme Court term that begins Monday. The ad cites Obama’s associations with Antoin “Tony” Rezko, once one of Obama’s top fundraisers; Bill Ayers, a founder of the 1960s radical group, the Weather Underground; and Wright, whom Obama disavowed over his incendiary claims.

“What you have to do in these ads is do something that will get attention,” said Wendy Long, counsel to the Network. “I think the ad is accurate, fair and true. Importantly it directs attention to a single issue and that is his judgment.”

— The National Nurses Organizing Committee/California Nurses Association is running an ad called “One Heartbeat Away” that shows an EKG readout over a photograph of McCain followed by images of Palin and references to her controversies. The ad was airing Wednesday, Thursday and Friday in small and medium markets in Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Colorado and Missouri. Union spokesman Charles Idelson said a television station in Green Bay, Wis., had refused to air the ad, citing its content.

— Planned Parenthood Action Fund has an ad noting that when Palin was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, the city billed sexual assault victims and their insurance companies for the cost of rape kits and forensic examinations. The police chief, Charlie Fannon, supported the policy as a cost-saving measure, but the state Legislature stopped the practice in 2000. A Palin spokeswoman has said Palin “does not believe, nor has she ever believed, that rape victims should have to pay for an evidence-gathering test.” The ad is airing in St. Louis; Milwaukee; Madison, Wis., and in northern Virginia.

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